Commonly Asked Questions about Customer Quality Surveys

What does it cost?

I guess it’s logical that cost is the first question. If it’s too much, nobody wants to waste time going any further. In this case, it’s very inexpensive. We will survey up to 50 of your customers for $650. We can keep the price low because we’ve already done most of the work. It’s like making a casting. Making one casting is fairly costly, but once you have the pattern setup the additional ones come far more reasonably.

What are the exact steps in the process if we have you survey our customers?

1. The first step in the process is for you to collect the names and addresses of your customers’ casting buyers and send them to me. I’ll take them in any legible fashion, but I’ll provide you with a spreadsheet format that works best for me.

2. As you are doing that, I will prepare the cover letter and form. While I have a standard format that I recommend, it can be modified to the desires of a specific operation. I generally like to send the cover letter on the foundry’s letterhead, but if you don’t want that the letter is revised so that it will go on Lobenhofer Consulting, Inc. letterhead. Naturally, if it’s going to go on your letterhead, you will have to send me some of your letterhead paper.

3. After the letter and survey form are approved and you’ve sent me the names of who is to be surveyed, I sent to each of the individuals a personalized letter, survey form, and self addressed stamped envelope for returning the completed form to Lobenhofer Consulting, Inc.

4. During the next month, as the forms are returned, I will enter the information into a database.

5. After giving the customers a month to reply, I summarize the information into a short report and send that to you along with the database that was developed and the actual returns.

6. The last step is the part I like best and you like least. You pay me and use the information in the survey to develop your improvement plans for the upcoming year.

What about the cost next year?

The real benefits of customer quality surveys comes from comparing the score individual customers give you this year as compared to previous years. When doing your first survey, you should be planning to continue the annually. I will guarantee that I will do the survey again for you next year at no more than I 5% increase.

Why send them to the casting buyers instead of our customers’ quality people?

I encourage sending to the casting buyer because he or she, in my mind, is the real customer. To me the person who places the order and authorizes payment of the bill is the customer. For most foundries the customer is the casting buyer. While there is a temptation to ask the customers’ management or quality professionals for their opinions, I believe the casting buyers are the ones who have the broadest viewpoint. The quality professional may be bent out of shape because you haven’t adopted six-sigma, but the casting buyer knows that no one is calling on him has either. The customer’s upper management may think you’re doing a wonderful job, but the casting buyer may have just received quotes from other foundries at substantially lower prices. You’re in trouble.